The cards always look different when it's your turn to play them; loaded with subtly different possibilities..

Autocratic governments are masters of self-contradiction. They say one thing, do another..

At one time, the treatment for a certain kind of psychosis had been to push an ice pick up through the orbit of the eye, into the frontal lobe; the i….

It’s the people who don’t worry—those who never have any doubts that what they’re doing is good and right—they’re the ones that cause the problems..

Nightside, cities glistened in chains, and a spray of tinkertoy habitats girdled the planet. Gossamer starbridges reached from the equator towards or….

A city's only ever three hot meals away from anarchy..

Victory loses its meaning without the memory of what you've vanquished..

You worry that we're becoming monsters. Merlin, we already were monsters. You didn't make us any worse..

I think I've reduced the amount of blood in my caffeine system to an acceptable level..

Looking at where the planet is now, we could screw things up massively or we could wise-up on a species level and actually make things better. If I h….

How did you . . . pass the time?’ Sunday asked. ‘You couldn’t just ching out of it, could you?’ ‘We had a different form of chinging,’ Eunice said. ‘….

The human capacity for grief. It just isn't capable of providing an adequate emotional response once the dead exceed a few dozen in number. And it do….

To see something marvelous with your own eyes-that's wonderful enough. But when two of you see it, two of you together, holding hands, holding each o….

It looked like a biology lesson for gods, or a snapshot of the kind of pornography which might be enjoyed by sentient planets..

As the old saying went, the Manhattan Project wasn't built in a day. Or was that Rome? Something to do with Earth, anyway..

It's an ancient technique known as lying, Khouri..

Enjoy it, kid. Enjoy feeling that you can make a difference.' Floyd flashed him a smile. 'It won't last for ever..

I never wanted to be "a writer"; I only ever aspired to be an science fiction writer. They'll tear that badge out of my cold dead hands..

I really struggle to pinpoint whether I became a scientist because I like science fiction, or did I gravitate to science fiction because I identified….

Without risk in our lives, we're scarcely better than machines ourselves..